S’abadeb, The Gifts: Art of the Coast Salish People at SAM

Many years back I rode my bike up to Daybreak Star in Discovery Park and found myself at the Seafair Powwow, a big event with drums and chanting and dust. There were beads for sale and photographers with giant lenses. I bought fry bread and wandered around, not knowing what to do at a powwow as an outsider. I stood on the edge of things, let the deep bass of the drumming bump up against my insides, and felt very much like a tourist observing a tradition I couldn’t crack. I didn’t feel unwelcome, but I was very aware that I was alone.

More recently, J and I found ourselves completely by accident at the Stommish Powwow. It was a much smaller event and I was a photographer with a big lens. We stood quietly on the edge of things before taking pictures to get a sense of if it was okay. I did some of that silent photographer’s conversation – eye contact and a smile before pointing to a camera and getting a nod in response. This time it was more like we stumbled across a family picnic in a small town. People were friendly towards us, conversational even. Later, I sent a link to my photos to the Stommish tribal headquarters, offering to send them a CD with copies, and got such a glowing thank you that I was a little embarrassed. And honestly, a little teary. (Those pictures are here and they remain some of my favorites, ever.)

We have a significant sized native population here in Seattle. It makes sense, this was Duwamish tribal land, after all. If you look at a map of where the native populations lived around Puget Sound, you’ll see that the tribes of the northwest made their homes all along the waterways. Salmon and cedar trees were plentiful and as much as I whine about the weather, it’s temperate and summer here is paradise. When I look at old pictures of the waterfront with the giant hand-built canoes against the timber mills, I try to imagine how infuriating it must have been to watch the landscape change. Last summer we saw the Intertribal Canoe Journey on the beach at Alki and later that day, we drove along Beach Drive, now primarily private waterfront housing. Try mentally contrasting that with driving through the Rez. The mind boggles and then starts to steam a little.

This is a long winded build up to telling you that last weekend we went to see S’abadeb, The Gifts, at Seattle Art Museum last weekend. It’s a collection of gorgeous things made by the Coast Salish people – the natives of our region. I felt both sad and happy to see the beautiful things we’ve seen in use – the cedar bark hats, a big canoe, the woven wool dresses, the painted drums – given a place as high art. There was great use of sound too – empty spotlighted pedestals that, when you stood near them, were showcases for chanting and storytelling and music. I guess the sadness came from the feeling of recognition long delayed.

Most of the Native American cultural facilities I’ve been to in the Pacific Northwest are on the Rez – there’s the somewhat tired Yakama Nation center and while the museum at Neah Bay is fantastic, it’s way the hell out there on the coast and probably doesn’t get half the visitors it deserves. There’s no museum for the natives of our region in town, though we do have the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the Northwest African American Museum for those minority populations. When you look again at the map, it seems like a huge oversight, especially when the region is still home to a living population that’s been here for thousands of years, that makes beautiful functional objects, and welcomes strangers into their midst.

Go see the show. It’s up until January 11th. You can get a catalog from Amazon, here.